Imagine setting up a chill Sunday float trip with your girlfriend and her kid, only to find out the river has been casually booby-trapped with live electricity. That’s exactly the shocking surprise river guide Ryan Aune ran into on the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody, Wyoming. According to a story posted on the KTVQ website, Ryan and his crew rounded a bend only to see an electric wire stretched bank-to-bank right at boat level. With the current ripping, they had zero time to react before hitting a second wire that tried to trap them, tipping the boat and tossing everyone into the drink. Thankfully, everyone survived the impromptu swim with nothing but a wild story to tell.
You’d think stringing live wires across a public waterway would be highly illegal, but the legal reality is actually a bit of a wild west. As it turns out, there’s no law on the books in Wyoming or Montana that stops landowners from fencing off a river—usually to keep livestock contained. In fact, advocates say these river fences are everywhere, with some valleys boasting a dozen of them in a single stretch. The sheriff’s office confirmed there was no malicious intent behind this DIY electric fence, and the ranch owners have already agreed to rethink their setup before they accidentally fry a tourist.
Yikes.
Photo not from actual incident
